Making good pizza, doing good, at Ville City Pizza Co.
Elevating pizza and giving back to the community
Pizza shouldn't just taste good. It can do good too.
That's the philosophy behind Ville City Pizza Co., the ghost kitchen operating out of the Roseville VFW Post 7555.
"Pizza brings everybody together. Everybody loves pizza. It brings smiles, it brings conversation. It brings a great end to a tough week where you can just come up to the VFW with great community, have a beer, have a slice of pizza, and just enjoy that," co-owner Michael Foehse said.
And when you purchase pizza from Ville City, a portion of that goes back into the community. Every month Ville City Pizza typically donates three percent of proceeds to a charity, group, or family in the Roseville area. They've donated to support the Randy Shaver "Tackle Cancer" campaign with RAHS. They donated to Living Well Disability Services, a nonprofit based in Mendota Heights that supports disabled adults. One of the VFW bartenders works there during the day. Ville City did a three-month campaign for Do Good Roseville recently.
Since January through the end of March 2026, Ville City is increasing their donation to five percent of proceeds for the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC).
"We just thought that organization, considering the times, was really, really awesome. So it's a little bit outside of Roseville, but we felt really passionate about that," Foehse said.
Ville City Pizza was closed on Jan. 23 in support of the ICE Out Shutdown, while the VFW stayed open.
"This isn't even about politics for us. It's just a humanity thing," Foehse said.
Fridays are their busiest night, so it was a sacrifice to close, but not a hard decision to make.
"Our motto at Ville City is 'Be Kind. Eat Pizza' and we're really steadfast in that. We'll always stand in the gap for that kind of stuff," Foehse said.
Giving back to Roseville
Investing in the community goes beyond donating to causes at Ville City. For Foehse, it's about giving back to the community that raised him and helping to keep that sense of community alive. Foehse grew up here, went to Central Park Elementary, RAMS, and RAHS. He grew up with fellow Roseville restauranteurs Curtis Thompson and Tim Hughes of Sprinkles and Mavericks. He studied at Bethel University. He and his wife Jenny raised their son Andre in Roseville. Foehse coached RAHS football for awhile and now serves as president of the board for the Roseville Area Youth Football Association.
Ville City hires local youth to work in the pizza kitchen too, many of whom are Roseville athletes.
"It's a safe place where they can learn good work skills and be part of something good and something wholesome," Foehse said.
Elevating the pizza scene in Roseville
Co-owner Andre Foehse played youth hockey in Roseville and the family often came to the VFW after games for pizza. When the VFW's pizza kitchen closed in January 2024, Michael Foehse joked about taking it over. As an owner of Pub Pass, a craft beer passport he started with friends in 2014, Foehse was already familiar with the restaurant business. And he'd been dreaming of opening a place in Roseville.
And then what started as an offhand remark turned into a serious conversation with the VFW to learn what it could look like to go into business together.
Foehse learned how to make pizza by watching lots of YouTube videos, reading books about pizza making and food science, testing recipes out in his home kitchen. He also flew out to New York to eat lots of pizza and talk to chefs. He dreamed of elevating the pizza scene in Roseville.
"I've always been a pizza guy. I grew up on traditional Minnesota style—square cut, lots of cheese, lots of toppings, thin crust, and I loved that. But I also was really drawn to the New York-style pizza," Foehse said .
New York-style pizza is characterized by its thin, crisp crust, large slices, and eccentric toppings.
Ville City has a Soppressata pizza with vodka sauce, pepperoni pizza with ricotta dollops and hot honey, and a vegetarian caramelized onion pizza with a garlic, riccotta sauce, among others. They use a Neapolitan dough, with high quality flour imported from Italy. It's unbleached, unbromated, and easy to digest, he says. That means it won't leave you feeling heavy and bloated like traditional pizzas do. They also offer a gluten free crust option.
The idea is to bring together the best of traditional Minnesota pies with the elevated flavor of a Neapolitan New York-style pizza, and "marrying that all together in a dive bar like the VFW."
"It's a crazy concept, but it's working, and it's been really fun," Foehse said.
Local chefs and food influencers have taken notice too. A recent review from The Tasting Notes Co. put it this way:
"Ville City Pizza Co. is a reminder that good food doesn’t always show up in the places we expect it to. Sometimes it’s waiting behind an unassuming door, under a drop ceiling with fluorescent lights, and with a simulated horse race blaring from the TVs.
And sometimes, it’s worth it anyway."
Local social media food influencer and VFW regular Tony Cu gave it a try too and raved about it. Here's his video review on Instagram.
Ghost Kitchen
Ville City Pizza Co. opened in late May 2025. Ville City is equally owned by the three members of the Foehse family. Jenny Foehse's mother works for them too, doing prep work in the kitchen.
"It's kind of a bootstrap, community organization," Foehse said.
When you eat there, you can order pizza and appetizers from the Ville City menu, as well as beer, burgers, and other fare from the VFW. Ville City operates out of the basement kitchen and pays the VFW rent. The VFW provides the servers.
Other so-called "ghost kitchens" in Roseville include Station 6 at Rosetown American Legion and Pittie BBQ at the B-Dale Club.
"The footprint here at the V is cool in the sense too that it's very much a community-based placed," Foehse said.
The VFW's primary mission is to serve veterans, but it's open to the public and a diverse array of people from all ages and walks of life enjoy coming there. From local families coming to eat after a sporting event, veterans who served in World War II, and blue collar workers coming in after a day's work, the VFW is truly open to everybody.
"Whether you're a veteran or just a regular patron, you can come in and enjoy everything that this place has to offer. Which is really sweet," Foehse said.
The VFW has been a longtime staple of the community and many of the regulars have been coming her for decades. Foehse is relieved that it's not going anywhere with the Civic Campus expansion project underway.
"It's super exciting, working with the city to bring in the new structures and the new buildings they're going to build, but also still keep this Roseville relic," Foehse said.
What's next?
Coming later this month, Ville City plans to roll out a new online ordering option and a new and updated menu with additional pies and new desserts. The vodka pie that was recently a special feature will be on this menu, as well as a sausage pizza with basil jalapeño pesto. They're also debuting a deep-dish cookie a la mode that will be "savory and delicious," Foehse said.
He wouldn't reveal more than that—you'll have to come try the new menu for yourself!
Correction: This article has been updated to clarify that a donation was made to the Tackle Cancer campaign, not to a student with cancer.
